


Looking for Answers

by Cait_Sidhe



Series: The Accidental Vampire [4]
Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Aphrodisiacs, Biting, Blood, Blood Drinking, Blood Kink, Books, Boys Kissing, Come Swallowing, Established Relationship, First Time Blow Jobs, Fluff and Smut, Gummiphones (Kingdom Hearts), Hollow Bastion | Radiant Garden, Keyblade Wielder Kairi (Kingdom Hearts), Kissing, Laboratories, Libraries, Love Bites, M/M, Magical Accidents, Magical House, Multiple Orgasms, Mysterious Tower (Kingdom Hearts), Nudity, Oral Sex, POV Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Post-Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance, Post-Kingdom Hearts II, Pre-Kingdom Hearts III, Research, Riku Loves Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Smut, Sora Loves Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Vampire Bites, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:14:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25598641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cait_Sidhe/pseuds/Cait_Sidhe
Summary: Sora and Riku travel to Radiant Garden in hopes of finding a way to reverse the miscast spell that turned Sora into a vampire. In the process, other things are discovered too.(Includes smut in chapter 2)
Relationships: Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Series: The Accidental Vampire [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1777057
Comments: 5
Kudos: 65





	1. Research

**Author's Note:**

> Two notes about the "chose not to use warnings":  
> 1) In chapter 2 (I'll specify where), there is oral sex. I was unsure about using the "underage" tag as in this story, Sora and Riku are 16/17 (I know the wiki claims they're a year younger in KH3, but that's fan-edited and I can't actually find a legit primary source for their ages—in my opinion, that math doesn't make sense, whereas 16/17 does, especially when comparing character models). Where I live, age of consent is 16, so it wouldn't be called "underage"—However, I know in some places that still is considered such, so I figured I'd clarify if anyone is concerned about that. Also, it's oral, not penetrative, so not sure if that makes a difference to people (or the law where you are) too.  
> 2) Smut involves excessive biting (that breaks skin), depictions of bloody wounds, and blood drinking as Sora's a vampire. It's not "graphic depiction of violence" as, in my opinion, it's technically not violence, but if blood makes you queasy avoid the smut scene (though honestly, if it does, why are you reading vampire stuff?)
> 
> Now that that's out of the way, a note about the story format! I've divided it into 4 chapters. Aside from the smut, this is a slower pace and there's not a whole lot of action compared to other stories in this series, but it's a necessary piece to move the series along as there is a whole lot of important information being learned. Future entries in the series will be more action-driven.
> 
> Timeline is still between Olympus ("2.9") and the rest of KH3.
> 
> This one is entirely from Riku's POV.

“What if this is permanent?” Sora lamented miserably as he closed another book.

Riku thought for a moment. By ‘this’, Sora had meant his accidental vampirism, caused by a miscast transformation spell to fit in at Halloween Town. Only a handful of people knew: Riku and Yen Sid had been told intentionally; Hades magically knew upon sight (he was God of the Underworld so that made sense; Zeus possibly knew too, as although he didn’t comment on it he did let Sora keep the ambrosia Hades gave him, which mortals weren't supposed to have); Hercules and Meg learned by necessity (Sora had gotten hurt in Olympus, and lost a lot of blood; those two were there and wanted to help); and the monkey in the Pride Lands magically knew. Yen Sid had said not to worry, as the spell commonly leaves residual things, and that it should wear off anywhere between a few hours and a few weeks. 

Three weeks had passed since. The elderly wizard had suggested not worrying until after a month, but the two were getting anxious, so they decided to scour Yen Sid’s library once again for any information, even though they had already checked the first week. So far, all previous documented cases had been changes in minor aesthetic things, like horns or skin color, with the only one that actually posed any danger being someone keeping gills for a day. None changed the inner anatomy (except the gills), and definitely were not actual changes in species, let alone a supernatural species. But Sora was a legitimate vampire now, needing to drink blood to survive (Riku gave him the blood. It was… oddly enjoyable, actually, even without taking the pleasant vampire venom into account. It had also been the catalyst for Sora finally telling Riku how he felt, which Riku had been getting impatient with—he had made it painfully obvious that he felt that way about Sora, but Sora had been painfully oblivious to it despite obviously feeling the same towards Riku. But as it was cute how Sora constantly had tried and failed to hide his own feelings, Riku had waited for Sora to tell him. Which he did before agreeing to drink Riku’s blood, thinking Riku wouldn’t allow it if he knew. Even though Riku’s body language had been screaming ‘I want you on top of me’ for the entire quarter-hour it had taken to convince the vampire that it was okay to drink his blood in the first place. Like, if Sora had started acting that way, Riku would have been all over him in seconds. But it all worked out in the end, and now Sora was Riku’s vampire boyfriend. It felt like something straight out of those YA supernatural romance novels—not that Riku had read any of those! Nope. Definitely hadn’t). 

“Riku?”

Riku shook himself out of his reverie. “Well, Yen Sid didn’t know much, and neither do these books. If magic doesn’t know how to solve it, maybe science does.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, maybe we should visit Ienzo and them.”

“In Radiant Garden? Good idea! Think Kairi would want to go?”

Riku raised an eyebrow. “You want another incident like Olympus? Because that’s how you get another incident like Olympus.” Said incident was how Kairi (who had gone there with Sora, Riku, and Donald), totally oblivious about anything sexual in nature and not even realizing gay was a thing one could be, learned not only that Riku and Sora were dating, but also basically had an entire sex ed lesson (okay, maybe that was a slight exaggeration, as she at least knew the basic heterosexual stuff, but in an reflection of the Island’s archaic views on homosexuality, Kairi hadn’t even known what the terms “straight” and “gay” were). In essence, Hades, Meg, and Hercules had all mentioned things Kairi didn’t understand in relation to Sora’s sexuality, and when Kairi asked for clarification Sora avoided answering. So Kairi, ever persistent when it came to getting answers, asked Riku when she and Sora got back to the Tower, and Lea ended up somehow involved in the conversation too. Even after learning that the comments had been sexual in nature, Kairi requested they explain, and realizing that Kairi didn’t really have anyone else to tell her these things, the three boys agreed to answer her questions. Riku had never even fathomed he would have to explain all that to anyone, let alone Kairi, but she needed the info eventually anyway so better sooner than later and from people she trusted. Unfortunately, that hadn’t assuaged the awkwardness.

Taking the ever-curious Kairi on a trip to Radiant Garden while trying to keep the entire reason they wanted to go there a secret would undoubtedly lead to disaster.

“Yeah… I see your point,” Sora conceded, then jumped up in excitement. “Oh, hey! Maybe we can stop by Merlin’s first! He might know things Yen Sid doesn’t, or have books on it! And we can see Leon and the others!”

Riku nodded in agreement. “Makes sense.”

°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°

“Wow, I haven’t been here in a while!” Sora said as they entered the town—city?—known as Radiant Garden.

“Really? It hasn’t been that long,” Riku said. Not even half a year prior Sora had been saving the place from computer-generated heartless.

“Feels like it though! Especially with how different it looks now.”

Riku had to concede that point. So much had happened in the short time since they’d last been here that it felt like years, the feeling only enhanced by the amount of construction that had been completed since. The place had still been half in ruins before they fought Xemnas, but now it looked like the base layers had been restored, or at least that of the commonly-travelled areas, leaving only the more aesthetic things like fountains and fences.

“Cloud!” Sora suddenly yelled, running up to a large broad-shouldered man with blonde hair who reeked of darkness, to whom he then gave a humongous hug. The man looked somewhat uncomfortable, but awkwardly patted Sora on the back in return before disconnecting Sora from himself.

Riku cautiously approached and Sora introduced them, even telling the man that he and Riku were boyfriends, to Riku’s surprise. Riku himself didn’t really care who knew, but Sora had so far been insisting on hiding that from everyone.

“If you hurt Sora, I’ll destroy you,” the man said in response, then turned to Sora. “You smell of darkness. But it’s not the normal kind of darkness that Riku and I have.” That answered the question as to if Sora knew the man had a significant amount of darkness in him.

“I do?” Sora asked, clearly confused. Riku was too. Did the vampirism exude darkness? If so, Riku couldn’t sense it.

“Yes. I don’t think it’s dangerous, but be careful. Also, your lip is bleeding. Why?” Cloud crossed his arms.

“It is?” Sora licked at his lip. “Oh. Don’t worry, that’s not my blood.”

Cloud stared at Sora for a moment, clearly confused beneath his stoic demeanor. “Then why is someone else’s blood on your lip? Did you get into a fight?” Riku picked up some serious protective-older-brother vibes coming from this man.

“Um. No.”

The man didn’t reply, silently waiting for Sora to continue. Surprisingly, Sora complied.

“I, uh, well, I bit someone.”

Cloud raised an eyebrow. “You… bit someone.”

“Oh, but it was consensual!” Sora quickly clarified.

“Consensual.” Cloud’s gaze turned to Riku, then drifted to his neck. “I see.”

Riku put his hand to his neck, feeling a slight bruise. Oops. He quickly muttered a “cure” spell as he felt his face turn viciously red.

Sora’s face had grown flushed as well. “So, um, we’re actually here to see Merlin about something, so, see you later, maybe?”

“Maybe,” Cloud said, then turned to Riku. “Remember: you hurt him, you die.” He then walked away without another word.

“Er. Friendly guy,” Riku commented once he was out of earshot and they’d continued walking to Merlin’s.

Sora laughed. “He’s nice though, promise!”

Riku raised an eyebrow. “He threatened me. Twice.”

“But you won’t hurt me, so it’s fine!” Sora said cheerfully.

Riku chuckled at that. “Nah, you’re definitely the one more likely to hurt me.”

“Hey!” Sora playfully hit Riku’s arm.

“See? Case and point.” 

Merlin’s house was obvious as it came into view. Firstly, it was painted a vibrant lilac with blue and yellow stars. Secondly, it had about twenty chimneys of various shapes and sizes, some twisted around one another or coming off each other, all emitting different colored puffs of smoke. 

“Um. Which doorbell do we use?” Riku asked Sora. There were at least a dozen, also of varying shapes and sizes.

Sora frowned. “Um. Last time I was here, there was a single bell with a rope.”

Thankfully, they did not need a doorbell, for just then Merlin opened the door happily and greeted them with a huge smile. “I had a feeling you’d show up today!” he told them happily. “Come in, come in!”

For a magical house, it didn’t feel too magical, Riku thought, and not just because a giant computer sat in the corner. It seemed they were in a sitting room, with a rectangular wooden coffee table surrounded by mismatched couches and armchairs. The only odd thing was the spiral staircase in the corner, which considering the place was only one story, of whose outer size would only fit this room, didn’t make sense.

The two quickly explained their issue to Merlin, whose face grew increasingly perplexed and impressed. “It actually changed your inner anatomy outside the world it was meant for?” he asked with excitement when they’d finished. “Why, only magic of the highest degree can do such! That you managed by accident is unprecedented! Such an innate magical talent must be honed!”

Sora blinked in surprise. “Really?” Riku understood where the brunette’s surprise stemmed from; it was almost the opposite of the attitude Yen Sid had displayed when told about the miscast spell. Plus, both Donald and Yen Sid often criticized Sora’s magical abilities, whereas he was now being told something completely different.

“Why, yes, really!”

“Um. Okay.” It sadly sounded like Sora didn’t believe it. “Well, do you think it can be reversed?”

“Hmmm…” Merlin put his hand on his chin in thought, staring at Sora intently. “Well, I’m actually not sure!” he eventually said, retaining the cheerful demeanor despite his words. “From what I can tell at a glance, it is indeed a permanent change—”

“What!” Sora interrupted with a squeak. “How can you tell?!”

“Well, that’s simple, my boy; temporary magical changes have a slight whiff of magic linger while they are in effect, whereas permanent changes do not.”

“But Yen Sid couldn’t tell.”

“Well, he’s not nearly as powerful as me,” Merlin said simply and unabashedly, which was news to Riku; he’d always assumed the opposite, probably because Yen Sid had such an imposing presence in comparison to Merlin’s quirkiness. “Plus, even if he could sense such traces of magic as easily as me, he most likely isn’t nearly as knowledgeable about the art of living transformative magic as I am, so probably wouldn’t be aware of that fact. It’s a niche subject.” 

“So, how can we reverse it?” Sora asked again, voice strained.

“Well, like I said, I’m not sure,” Merlin replied. “In all my centuries alive”—centuries? The wizard was centuries old?!—“never have I seen anyone magically change their anatomy permanently to this extent by accident. Some have permanently changed their anatomy on purpose, but, seeing as they wanted those changes, they never made an effort to change back. Even then, it was mostly things like changes to their reproductive system or elective organ removal; certainly never a change into a supernatural creature. Usually those who want to be a vampire go the traditional route.”

“But I don’t want to be a vampire!” Sora yelled loudly, with a sob. 

“Sora…” Riku began, putting a hand on his boyfriend’s back, not exactly sure what to say.

So Merlin responded instead, in a comforting voice, “Oh, come now. Sure, it’s different, but I’m sure you’ll adjust.” 

The door opened, but Sora didn’t hear. “No I won’t! I don’t want to drink more blood! Even if it’s Riku’s!” Sora yelled.

“You’re doing what now?” asked a shocked and confused voice from the door, which was still partially open. Riku turned to look, seeing a tall brown-haired battle-hardened man that reminded him of Cloud in demeanor.

Sora’s eyes widened and voice quieted as he reacted. “L-leon… um… well…”

Leon closed the door and briskly strode over to the group. “Did I hear that right?” He glared at Merlin, voice stern. “Just what in the worlds are you trying to rope Sora into, Merlin?”

“Why, nothing at all, Leon! He came to me for help,” the wizard explained.

“And you’re telling him the solution is to drink Riku’s blood,” Leon said flatly.

“Oh no, not at all,” the wizard corrected. “He figured that part out on his own! He wants to stop having to do that.”

The man looked at the wizard blankly. “What.”

Sora laughed nervously. “Um. Guess I can’t get out of explaining this, can I?” He rubbed the back of his head. 

“Nope,” Leon said curtly.

“Right… so, um… Riku, you explain it!” Sora darted to hide behind Riku.

Riku sighed. “Really, Sora?”

“So you’re the infamous Riku,” the swordsman said. “Sora’s talked about you a lot. Glad he finally found you. I’m Leon.” He offered his hand and Riku shook it. “Now, tell me, why is our dear innocent Sora drinking your blood?” Riku was getting significant amounts of protective-older-brother vibes from this one, too. Great.

Riku sighed and put his hand on his forehead. “Sora accidentally turned himself partially into a vampire.”

Leon raised an eyebrow. “Partially?”

Riku nodded and lowered his arm. “Yeah. All that stuck was the fangs, need for blood, some enhanced senses, and intermittent super-speed. Oh, and I think some sort of venom.” Riku said the last as payback for making him explain; he hadn’t told that bit to Sora yet.

“What!” the brunette in question exclaimed. “Venom? You didn’t tell me I had venom! What’s it do?”

Riku turned to Sora and grinned. “I’ll tell you later.”

“No! I want to know now!”

“Hmm. Pretty sure you don’t,” Riku teased.

“Riii-kuu!”

Merlin chuckled, apparently catching on. “Why, lad, in many worlds, vampire venom is a type of aphrodisiac, didn’t you know?”

“A what?” Sora asked in confusion.

“An aphrodisiac.”

“Right. That’s enough,” Leon said. “Sora, your boyfriend can explain that in private later.”—Riku wasn’t surprised Leon had already figured out their relationship status from the brief interaction—“So, if I understand it correctly, you came here to ask Merlin about how you can reverse it?”

“Yeah,” Riku answered. “But he doesn’t seem to know much about that. No one’s turned themselves permanently into a supernatural creature via magic before, and although people do make other permanent inner anatomical changes there’s no documentation of them changing back, since they all wanted those.”

“There’s nothing in the library, either?”

“Oh! Silly me,” Merlin said. “Yes, there may be something in my library about it! And if not my library, perhaps the castle’s! Oddly enough, it’s the one thing Maleficent didn’t change or destroy when she commandeered that castle. I suppose even evil faeries can have a love of books! Well, follow me, then.” Merlin immediately headed towards the stairs; everyone else, including Leon, followed him up.

“Hey Leon, where’s everyone else?” Sora asked. “I was hoping to at least say hi to them, too.”

“They’re around,” Leon replied. “They should start trickling back soon; I’m only here so early because it’s my turn to make dinner. I’ll come get you when it’s ready.”

“That’s okay; I ate before I got here,” Sora informed him.

Leon frowned, stopping outside the entrance to the second floor, which was apparently a dual kitchen and potions lab. “But you’re always—oh. Right. Well, Riku still needs to—”

“Oh, no, I don’t want to impose,” Riku interrupted.

Leon shook his head. “It’s no issue at all; Merlin’s fridge provides whatever food and ingredients we want in whatever quantity we need… besides,” he smirked slightly. “You’re eating for two now, right?”

Riku felt his face redden. “That’s—do you have to make it sound so weird?” Riku grew even more embarrassed as he realized his voice had come out close to a whine.

Leon laughed heartily, turning to enter the kitchen. “All in good fun. Well, I gotta get cooking; good luck with your research.”

“Wait!” Sora called, and Leon turned back around. “Um. Please don’t tell the others about me being, well, you know. I’m trying to keep it a secret. Only Riku, Yen Sid, Merlin, and you know.”

“And Hades,” Riku chimed in.

Sora pouted. “He doesn’t count!”

“And—”

“Okay, fine! Point is, not many know! Leon, promise you won’t tell?”

Leon nodded. “Okay, Sora, I promise.”

°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°

“Ugh!” Sora tossed a book into the air, which magically floated into its proper place in Merlin’s magical library. “That was the tenth book with absolutely nothing helpful!”

“Well, looks like there’s plenty more,” Riku said, gesturing to a new pile of books that floated in front of Sora. The two sat cross-legged in the center of the so-called library, which was horizontally the size of the first floor—as was every floor in this seemingly unending tower (they were on the 11th)—yet towered twenty feet high, shelves overflowing with books lining each wall floor-to-ceiling. The rest of the room was filled with some mismatched shorter bookshelves, all completely filled and with precariously stacked too-high piles of books on top of them, and tables topped with more piles of books. There seemed to be no rhyme nor reason to the classification of the books, but the library magically retrieved the types of books you wanted so that didn’t really matter much.

Sora picked up the book on top of the pile the library had provided him, then snickered. “Okay, I think we can immediately rule this one out.” He held up the book to show Riku the title. “Magical body alterations to spice up your sex life.”

Riku raised his eyebrows. “I don’t even want to think about why Merlin has that book.” Unfortunately, the library’s curation services were fairly limited, only allowing broad searches of subjects. It could provide them with books on either human body transformation or supernatural creatures, but couldn’t understand more specific terms or pair it down to only books that included both.

Sora quickly sorted out the books that might have information from those that definitely wouldn’t, and the library again reshelved the useless ones and brought him more. He repeated the process until they had about a dozen to go through. 

“Hey, any luck?” A voice said from the door, and Riku and Sora looked up to see Leon. Both boys shook their heads. “Ah, that sucks. Well, dinner’s ready; Sora, I know you don’t need to eat, but maybe you could bring some books downstairs and go through them there? I’m sure everyone will want to say hi.”

Sora’s face fell. “I do want to see them, but they’ll notice I’m not eating, and there’ll be questions…”

Leon shook his head. “Nah, no one will notice. They’ll be coming in and out; we don’t really do formal sit-down dinners here. No one’s even here yet, so just say you already ate—which isn’t a lie—and let them assume it was the food here.”

Sora’s eyes lit up. “Okay!” He jumped up, grabbed the entire pile of books, and promptly tripped over Riku. Fortunately the books floated around in the air rather than crashing to the floor.

Leon and Riku both laughed. “Here, let me carry some,” Riku said, getting up and then helping Sora up.

Leon grabbed some books too, and they traveled down eight stories of stairs (what was with magical towers and lack of elevators?) to the first floor, where the books were placed on the coffee table. Sora plopped down on the lime-green couch, and Riku went over to the table that had appeared along the wall near the stairs with the food Leon had cooked, designed for people to grab some and go. It was some sort of pasta casserole: elbow noodles covered in tomato sauce and mixed with ground meat, onions, garlic, mushrooms, and a couple vegetables Riku couldn’t place (probably from worlds he wasn’t familiar with). It was topped with generous amounts of cheese and bread crumbs. Leon had also made a side of extra-buttery garlic bread.

Sora scrunched up his nose when Riku sat next to him with the bowl of pasta and bread. “Ugh, what is that? It reeks!”

Riku looked at Sora and raised an eyebrow. “It’s a pasta casserole.”

“Yeah but it smells like a sewer.”

“It… what?”

“Okay, maybe not like that, but just as horrible!” Sora covered his nose with his hands.

Riku was completely baffled at Sora’s reaction. He knew consuming human food ended badly for Sora post-consumption, but never had he reacted so strongly to the smell of it before (in fact, the brunette had been pissed that food still had a good taste, as that made it tougher to avoid). He put the bowl on the coffee table, as far away from Sora as he could reach.

“Hmmm,” Leon said; Riku hadn’t realized he was still in the room. “I think perhaps you inherited more vampire traits than you thought.”

“What?” Sora squeaked. He groaned. “You can’t be serious.”

“Oh!” Riku realized. “The garlic! Didn’t one of the books say something about alliums being unpleasant for vampires?”

“Alli-what?”

“Like, garlic and onions and stuff. I think it was the high sulfur content.”

“Wait, so it’s like, toxic or something?”

Leon answered that, shaking his head. “I think it’s just a smell thing. That stuff even smells strongly to humans.”

Sora nodded his head. “Okay. That makes sense. I can’t even smell your blood through it. Riku’s scent’s still there though, but muted...”

Leon stared at Sora. “Okay, that’s just a little creepy,” he said emotionlessly.

“Should I get something else to eat?” Riku asked. He didn’t want to—it looked and smelled so good to him—but if it bothered Sora so much he could forego it for something less smelly.

Sora shook his head. “No, I can endure it.” Sora paused briefly. “Hey, Don’t vampires usually not need to breathe? I wonder if I can do that too.” He put his hands over his mouth and pinched his nose. Riku and Leon watched, both curious too. Half a minute later, Sora let go and grabbed Riku’s arm as he gasped for air. “Okay, nevermind. Guess I didn’t inherit that ability. Damn, I actually wanted that one.”

Riku raised an eyebrow. “You did?”

“Well, yeah! Wouldn’t that be awesome? My stealth would be, like, a hundred percent.”

“A hundred percent of something is the same thing as having the normal amount,” Riku pointed out. It was times like this that Sora’s lack of schooling the past few years really stood out.

Sora frowned. “Really? Then, like, a thousand percent.”

Riku nodded. “Better. Hey, Leon, do you think Merlin has any math books? Or, like, general education things?”

Leon looked a little confused about that. “Maybe? Why?”

“Sora technically dropped out of school after 8th grade.”

“Well I was busy saving the world and stuff!” Sora defended.

“And being asleep.”

“Yeah, that too! Maybe you should have read me textbooks instead of all those fiction ones.”

Riku was sure his face had become the color of a cherry. “Y-you remember that?”

Sora blushed too. “Er. Not exactly. But Mickey told me you did! And I had some dreams about the stories! Although I only remember them a little bit. Did you really read me one about a sparkly vampire?”

Riku’s face was definitely cherry-red now. “Okay, change of topic please!”

“Aww, but that was a good one, I think! You should read it to me when I’m awake.”

“Um. You can read it yourself,” Riku mumbled. “Besides, we have other vampire books right here we can read.”

“But I like it better when you read! And these books are all nonfiction.”

The door opened just then; Riku welcomed the distraction. Two girls entered, one with short dark hair, a crop top, and the shortest shorts Riku had ever seen, and the other with long braided hair and long bangs swept to both sides, wearing a plain white dress hemmed below the knees. She carried an armful of flowers. Sora introduced them as Yuffie and Aerith, respectively.

“Hi, Sora!” Yuffie greeted loudly. “And you must be Riku! You sunburnt or something?”

Leon laughed. “Nah, we were just teasing him.”

“How does everyone around here know my name?” Riku asked. It was baffling; he’d never met any of them before, had he? Was it possible he had yet somehow didn’t remember?

“Oh, that’s easy!” Yuffie said. “Sora talked about you so much whenever he visited! I see you’re as hot as he claimed.” 

“What!” Sora said. Now he was the bright red one. “I never said that!”

Yuffie winked at him. “Might as well have. You got this starry-eye look every time, and kept saying how wonderful he was at everything, and your descriptions of his looks practically screamed ‘I want to bang him’!”

“Yuffie!” Aerith chided. “Sora’s sixteen! He’s not thinking about that stuff yet!”

Yuffie grinned slyly. “From the looks on their faces, I’d say otherwise,” she teased. Riku and Sora’s faces were matching shades of beet red, and they had receded as far into the couch as possible.

“Sora,” Leon said, voice serious. “Do I need to give you The Talk?” Riku could truly not tell if he were joking or not.

Sora made a strangled squeak and leapt up, dashing up the stairs before anyone could say anything else. 

Riku put his hands over his face. “Can someone die of embarrassment?” he mumbled.

Leon stared at the stairs Sora had fled up. “I was only joking…”

Riku sighed and began eating his food, which was now cold. Might as well do so while Sora wasn’t sitting next to him complaining about the smell.

By the time Sora returned, Riku had finished his food and Yuffie and Aerith had been replaced with people Leon introduced to Riku as Tifa and Cid, as well as Cloud, whom Riku had met earlier that day. Cid was arguing with Merlin about something related to magical computer modifications, while the other two had taken places in variously-designed armchairs around the coffee table. Leon sat on the couch with Riku.

“Hey, that’s my spot!” Sora complained upon seeing Leon.

“Relax,” Leon said. “This couch fits three or four people. The space between us will fit you fine.”

“Oh, okay!” Sora jumped over the coffee table, knocking some books away in the process, and landed right in between Leon and Riku, the force enough to cause them all to bounce slightly.

“What’s with all these books on transformation magic and supernatural creatures?” Tifa asked, helping pick them up. “Merlin got a new project?”

“Something like that,” Leon said, to Riku’s relief. He knew Sora would be uncomfortable answering questions about it if they discovered they were theirs. Then, he frowned. “Hey, Cloud, you okay?”

Cloud had been staring at Sora, a pensive look on his face. “Sora. Why do you have a scar?” he finally asked bluntly.

Sora gave a start of surprise, then looked down at his leg. He’d removed his socks and shoes, revealing the large scar—a series of puncture wounds along his calf, ankle, and heel—that had priorly only been slightly visible in the gap between socks and capris. Sora nervously replied. “Uh. I was kinda attacked by a shark…”

The rest of the evening was filled with everyone sharing stories about the various scars they all had, too. Literally everyone had a story or two; after all, when you’re constantly fighting, scars are inevitable.


	2. Aphrodisiac

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smut starts about a third of the way in, right after they end the phone call with Mickey; it ends at the following scene break.

“Ugh! I can’t believe we found nothing!” Sora yelled, collapsing on the bed in the room Merlin had lent them. Or rather, the room the house had created for them—apparently the place grew new rooms whenever needed. It was the same size as every room, and full of a maze of mismatched furniture with a single humongous bed in the corner, one side up against the stained glass window that literally composed the entire back wall. The design resembled that of a heart station, featuring the two boys sleeping curled around each other (thankfully clothed), Riku with the dream-eater sigil on his back and little bat wings (Riku was unsure why; did he have those while in dreams? He’d have to check next time) and Sora with fangs, holding their combined rainbow keyblade (which Riku noticed had a paopu fruit charm; looks like their hearts had been trying to tell them they loved each other before they had known themselves) and surrounded by their dream eaters. The area around the boys was a blood red (real subtle, house, real subtle). The bed was double that of a king size, more fit for a dragon than a couple of boys. The house had obviously realized Sora and Riku would end up in the same bed anyway, so hadn’t even bothered making a second. The bedsheets were crimson red silk with black lace, with a deep purple gauze curtain that could be pulled around it (again, house, real subtle… was it trying to get them to have sex? Was it a sentient, voyeuristic house? Riku shivered and dismissed the thought.)

“Well, maybe we’ll find something tomorrow,” Riku suggested, sitting on the edge of the bed. Merlin had invited them to stay for as many days as needed.

“Maybe,” Sora mumbled, face pressed into the bed. “Ugh. My head is spinning.”

“Do you need blood?” Riku asked, maybe a little too hopefully.

“No… it was just so many books… and this bed has some sort of weird perfume on it. Smells like roses.”

Riku grabbed a corner of a sheet and sniffed. It did indeed smell like roses. Such a bizarre house.

RRRRING! RRRRRING! Riku jumped in surprise, pulling the GummiPhone out of his pocket. He looked at the thing, unsure how to answer. He had only received his own a week prior, and hadn’t actually used it yet—Sora had called him a couple times during missions with Mickey, but it was before everyone had their own so Mickey had always answered those calls and then handed the phone to him. 

“The green button,” Sora said helpfully.

“Thanks.” Riku pressed the green button, and Mickey’s face appeared. “Mickey!” Riku said in greeting. “Is everything okay?” he asked next, because he always assumed the worst nowadays.

“Well, you tell me,” Mickey said with concern. “You and Sora took off without telling anyone where you were going!”

Riku blinked, then turned to glare at Sora, who had sat up. “You told me you’d told Yen Sid!”

Sora blushed. “Oops. I forgot.” A likely story; Sora hated confronting the elderly sorcerer about anything—Riku should have taken the job instead. Sora crawled over to sit next to Riku. “Sorry, Mickey.”

Mickey looked at them, curious. “Hey, uh, where are you guys? Is that a bed, and a stained glass window?”

Riku blushed. “Merlin’s house provided us with a room for tonight. It has… interesting tastes, apparently.”

Mickey chuckled, looking away in reminiscence. “Ah, yes. I completely understand. When I stayed over once, it… well, I’m actually not sure how to describe the room; it was strangely non-euclidian. Anyway! So, you’re at Merlin’s?”

“Yup!” Sora said, popping the ‘p’. “I got to introduce Riku to Leon and the others!”

“Oh! And how did that go?”

Riku answered that. “They seem like nice people. Cloud and Leon did threaten me though.”

Mickey looked surprised. “Threatened you? Why?”

Riku laughed a bit. “That’s not important,” he dodged the question. “Pretty sure they were teasing.” (Riku hoped they were, at least).

“Well, if you say so! So, why exactly are you there, anyway?”

“Research. We needed to borrow his library; Yen Sid’s didn’t have what we needed.” Riku looked towards Sora for guidance on how to continue. It was his issue to tell, not Riku’s.

“Gosh,” Mickey said, looking surprised. “What kind of thing could you be researching that Yen Sid’s library doesn’t have information on?

“Human transformation magic,” Sora replied; it seemed he actually would tell Mickey, after all, despite not even wanting Kairi to know. “Yen Sid’s stuff is too general. We’ll most likely be here a few days at least; Merlin’s library is ten times the size, somehow.”

Mickey looked even more surprised. “That’s… quite advanced magic for you.”

Sora nodded. “I know. We won’t attempt anything ourselves if—when—we find it.”

“But… what could you possibly need that for?”

“Well…” Sora looked uneasy, but sighed and pressed on regardless. “I, er, kinda messed up the magic to make us fit into Halloween Town. Yen Sid said it’s common for it to leave things temporarily, and it should vanish on its own, but it hasn’t even though it’s been three weeks, and the issue is actually a bit bigger than the usual acrostic changes.”

“Aesthetic,” Riku corrected.

“Yeah, that. Like, I changed my inner anatomy, and it’s, um, well, it’s a bit of an issue, because, well, uh. I can’t say it, Riku, you say it.” Sora blushed and hid his face in Riku’s shoulder, clutching at his arm.

Riku sighed. “Fine. He made himself partially a vampire. We wanted to see if there was a way to reverse it without having to wait, but none of Yen Sid’s books were helpful, so we came here. Merlin looked at Sora and said it’s actually permanent, so won’t wear off like usual, meaning we have to find some way to manually undo it. Which so far we haven’t, because apparently when people make permanent changes they don’t want to undo it, so no one ever took the effort to figure out any counterspells.”

“But there’s a lot more books to look through!” Sora pointed out. “So we might find something!”

“If we don’t, we’re going to try the castle library, and if that doesn’t pan out go see Ienzo to see if science can undo it.”

Mickey took a moment to process it all. “Well, I can see if the castle here has anything about it, too, although it’s not nearly as big as Merlin’s or Radiant Garden’s castle’s libraries.”

“Really?” Sora said, moving closer to the camera, sitting nearly in Riku’s lap now. “Thanks, Mickey!”

The King nodded. “Of course! Always happy to help!” He then looked worried. “Is there anything else you need? We can modify your missions so you’re only in worlds when it’s night there.”

“Oh, that’s not an issue!” Sora assured Mickey. “It’s only partially, meaning just a few traits.” He tapped his fingers as he listed them: “Fangs, enhanced smell, human food makes me sick, night vision, super-speed intermediately—”

“Intermittently,” Riku corrected.

“Yeah, that. And the big one of course: needing to drink blood. But Riku helps me with that one!”

Mickey raised an eyebrow. “He does?”

Sora nodded. “Yup! Oh, also, it’s only you, Leon, Yen Sid, and Merlin who know—”

“Hades too,” Riku reminded.

“Yeah, yeah, he knows too. But he used his god-powers to know so that doesn’t count!”

“And Meg, Hercules, and probably Zeus.”

“Well, yeah, but that was by necessity. But that really is it! So don’t tell anyone else, okay? Please?”

Mickey nodded. “Of course. Perfectly understandable why you’d want to hide it.” He frowned. “Wait, you haven’t told Kairi?”

Sora shook his head. “No! We’ve only told those who are necessary. Which should’ve only been Yen Sid and Merlin. Leon overheard me crying about not wanting to drink blood anymore so we had to explain that. The Olympus people are a whole complicated story I don’t feel like explaining.” 

“I would tell Kairi too,” Mickey suggested. “She’s been your friend for many years; she’ll be able to tell something’s up. Plus, it’s good to have friends that’ll support you when upsetting things happen!”

“I have Riku,” Sora argued petulantly.

“Well, okay. But, think about telling her, at least.”

“I actually agree,” Riku pitched in. “She’s going to be upset if she figures it out on her own—or, even worse, if she gets told second-hand.”

Sora sighed. “Ugh. Fine. As long as it doesn’t go like the sex ed lesson we had to give her last week.”

“Wait, what?” Mickey squeaked, and Sora and Riku blushed.

“Um, well, uh,” Sora sputtered. “Riku, you explain it!”

Riku frowned. “You brought it up.”

“Boys?” Mickey asked, sounding almost like a parent. Well, he was the age of their parents. Probably. It was tough to tell considering he wasn’t human.

Riku sighed. “When Kairi, Sora, Goofy and Donald went to Olympus, Hades made some extremely lewd and suggestive comments and gestures Kairi didn’t understand. I don’t think Donald or Goofy understood either, but they dropped it, probably assuming Sora didn’t know either. But Kairi realized that Sora did know, especially when Hercules and Meg said some stuff too, and kept pressuring Sora to explain them. Since he wouldn’t, she asked me when they got back… in the end we decided that it’d be better for us to explain stuff to her than if she went elsewhere, since she was so determined to know.”

“She had questions about everything…” Sora groaned. “It was worse than Hades taunting me…”

“I see,” Mickey said. There was a pause. “Hades was left out of the mission report,” he pointed out.

Sora blushed. “It was embarrassing! Like, he appeared to tell us not to interfere, and then when I started to argue Kairi stopped me and agreed, which was the logical thing to do even if we were going to interfere anyway. But Hades didn’t like that, because apparently he mostly just wanted to rile me up. So he switched tactics to taunting me about my sexuality.” Sora paused, eyes growing wide. “And I just outed myself accidentally. Fuck.”

“Language!” Mickey chided. 

“It’s okay, Sora,” Riku told Sora before he could get too upset. “Mickey’s accepting. It’s not like the Islands. He knows about me, too.”

“Oh! I forgot about that. Yes, no need to worry.” Mickey smiled gently. “I suppose you want to keep that a secret, too?”

Sora nodded. “Please! Only Kairi and a few others know. And the entire Organization because apparently Roxas was completely out and that’s something Nobodies carry over from their Somebodies.”

“Gotcha. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.” Mickey turned to the side, listening to something off-screen; it sounded like Minnie’s voice. He turned back to the boys. “Well, Minnie needs me for something, so I’ll let you two go now. Next time, tell Yen Sid where you’re going before leaving the Tower, would you?”

The boys agreed; they all said their goodbyes and Mickey hung up.

Sora sniffed the air. “Riku, do you smell smoke?”

Riku sniffed too, then frowned. Yes, that definitely was smoke, although it was sweet… he spotted something on the bedside table. “Looks like the room provided incense.” He rolled his eyes.

Sora stared at it for a moment, then looked around the room, eyes lingering on the bed and glass. “Okay, is it just me, or is the room trying to tell us something?” The room suddenly dimmed (how it was lit in the first place was a mystery, as there was no visible lighting).

“What’ll it do next, play music?” Riku joked. As if on cue, quiet classical music began to play… no. This was the music they’d played in the sleeping version of Symphony of Sorcery: their heart-song, ‘Dearly Beloved’. Riku sighed. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

“Hey, Riku?” Sora said, moving slightly from side to side in time with the rhythm. “My head feels a little fuzzy. But a nice fuzzy.”

Riku tilted his head. He felt it too… he looked suspiciously over at the incense. Should they be worried? Hmm. It certainly was a pleasant feeling though. Riku looked over at Sora, and something in his groin did a little flip.

Sora turned, locking eyes with Riku. He was breathing deeply and his eyes were dilated; Riku imagined he looked the same as his breathing synced to Sora’s. Sora glanced briefly at Riku’s lips, and that was all the invitation needed.

Sora’s and Riku’s lips crashed into each other, warm and pliant, their tongues already fighting for dominance. Sora flipped his leg over Riku’s lap and twisted so he was straddling Riku, not once breaking the kiss. He pushed at the collar of Riku’s jacket, and Riku quickly pulled it off as Sora removed his own, still not breaking the kiss. Riku’s cock twitched slightly; as Sora pressed his hips down, Riku realized the brunette was already half-hard, too. Riku pulled them further onto the bed and flipped Sora over, holding him down by his wrists, straddling him but not yet pressing down.

The two finally broke the kiss to catch their breath. “Wow,” Sora breathed after a moment.

“Yeah. Wow.” Riku said in a whisper. He pressed his lips to Sora’s again briefly, then trailed kisses down and past his cheek until he reached the crook of Sora’s neck, which he bit down on hard, sucking in so it’d leave a bruise. 

Sora moaned. “Ri… ku…” he bucked his hips up; he and Riku were already both fully hard now.

Riku lifted his head to look into Sora’s eyes. “What do you want, Sora?”

Sora replied with another moan, bucking his hips up again, trying for some friction.

“Use your words, Sora.” Riku’s breath was low and husky. “What do you want?”

“Riku,” Sora whined. “Riku, please.”

“Please what, Sora?”

Sora bucked his hips up again.

Riku lowered himself down and spread his thighs so he was pressing Sora’s groin into the bed. Riku sat up, freeing Sora’s hands. “Don’t move,” he whispered; Sora whined slightly, but followed the command. Riku slowly trailed his fingers down Sora’s arms and sides. When he reached the hem of Sora’s shirt, he played with it a little, slightly brushing against Sora’s skin. He looked into his eyes and asked quietly. “Can I take this off?”

“Only... if you take... yours off too,” Sora panted. “And our pants.”

Riku raised an eyebrow. “Awfully eager tonight, aren’t you?” he asked, voice amused.

Sora answered with a happy whine, which turned into a gasp as Riku pulled Sora’s shirt up swiftly, Sora lifting himself up slightly to make it easier to get off. Riku had his own shirt off within seconds. Riku lightly brushed his fingers over Sora’s chest; when he reached his nipples, Riku flicked his thumbs over them, causing Sora to gasp, and then moan and arch back as Riku pinched the nipples tightly and twisted them. Riku then dragged his nails lightly down Sora’s abdomen until he reached Sora’s belt. “This okay?”

“What did I just say?” Sora snapped. “I want it off. All of it off. Yours too.”

Riku laughed. “Pushy.” He carefully undid Sora’s belt. Once it was open, Riku lifted himself up so he could pull Sora’s pants off, then removed his own—or rather, tried to.

“Riku, hurry up!” Sora begged, precum soaking his underwear.

“I’m trying! It’s this stupid belt!” Why did the fairies always insist on such complicated clothing? Finally he got it undone, and practically tore his pants off, flinging them somewhere across the room. 

Riku collapsed onto Sora, pressing their bodies flush against each other, immediately capturing Sora’s lips in another heated kiss as the brunette laced his arms around Riku’s waist. Sora moaned into the kiss then playfully nipped at Riku’s lip, eliciting a gasp from him. Sora’s fang had poked a little hole, the vampire venom causing a pleasant tingling sensation. Riku pressed his hips down, hard, their cocks rubbing against each other through their underwear, causing both to moan simultaneously. Sora’s hands had already managed to slide under Riku’s underwear to cup his cheeks, and he pulled down, pulling Riku’s hips down further. 

Sora then slid his hands back up and toyed with the waist of Riku’s underwear. He broke the kiss to speak, voice breathless. “Off.”

Riku looked at Sora, eyebrows raised. They hadn’t gone further than this before.

“I want to see you,” Sora said. “All of you.”

Riku hesitated for a moment, thinking, then grinned slyly. “Only if I can see all of you, too.”

Sora gave Riku’s underwear another tug, and he sat up again, shimmying his underwear off and then pulling Sora’s off too. Both their cocks were rock hard and dripping; Riku stayed upright, hips hovering above Sora, giving the brunette a full view as Riku’s own eyes trailed over Sora. Sora moaned and arched back, brushing his cock against Riku’s thigh, causing Riku to whine. “Ri… ku…” Sora gasped.

“What do you want, Sora?” Riku whispered huskily.

“Ugh. Why are you so incredibly hot?”

Riku chuckled. “I could ask the same of you.” He fell onto Sora again, rubbing their cocks against each other as he drew Sora into another kiss.

Sora gasped as Riku slid against him again, then broke the kiss. “Riku, can you…” 

“Can I what?”

“I need… I need you in me…” he groaned.

Riku’s cock twitched. God how he wanted that… but… Riku shook his head. “Not tonight.”

“Please?” Sora begged, putting on his best puppy-dog face.

“Sora, we don’t have lube or anything.”

“I’m sure if we ask the room—”

“Not tonight,” Riku repeated, sitting up again, his thighs spread enough to keep their cocks firmly pressed together. “Not while we’re under the influence of whatever this smoke is. However…” Riku grinned, looking at Sora hungirly. “I have another idea…”

“What?”

“Stay still,” Riku commanded, grinning wider as he gently slid his hands over Sora’s sides until they rested at his hips. He moved backwards, shifting to kneel between Sora’s knees, and bent down, gently licking the tip of Sora’s cock, tasting the salty precum. 

Sora squealed. Riku loved how loud the brunette was. “Yesssss. Riku, please!”

“Please what?” Riku purred.

“Please, suck my cock!”

Riku lowered down, completely engulfing Sora’s cock with his mouth. Sora squirmed, and Riku grabbed his hips to hold him down. Riku lifted up, sliding his tongue along the underside of Sora’s cock as he did so, then wrapped his lips around the tip, sucking hard. Sora squealed as Riku tickled the slit with his tongue, and Riku had to press down on Sora’s hips harder as Sora began squirming again. His cock throbbed with want; Riku lowered himself onto it again, until Sora’s cock was entirely in his mouth, tickling the back of Riku’s throat; he groaned, and Sora gasped.

“R-riku, I…” Sora panted. “I don’t… think I’ll last… much longer…”

Riku hummed slightly, then began bobbing his head up and down; his grip on Sora’s hips slightly loosened, causing Sora to buck his hips up. Riku nearly gagged and immediately pressed Sora’s hips still to regain control. Sora’s hands wrapped themselves in Riku’s hair.

“R-riku… I’m gonna…”

Riku increased his pace; Sora’s cock began pulsating as Sora let out gasp after gasp, pumping warm cum into Riku’s mouth. Riku swallowed it all, sucking as much out as possible. Sora let his arms drop as Riku withdrew from his cock.

“That… that was…” Sora gasped, completely wrecked, locking eyes with Riku. “That was… amazing…”

Riku licked his lips. “Glad you enjoyed it.”

Sora frowned. “You enjoyed it too, right?”

“Oh, definitely.”

Sora’s eyes drifted to Riku’s cock, which was still hard and dripping, and licked his lips. Riku opened his mouth to tell him not to worry about it, but before he could make a sound Sora had him flipped over. Right, vampire speed. And stamina, apparently; Sora looked completely fine, not tired at all after the orgasm of a minute prior.

Sora kissed Riku hard, then began trailing kisses along Riku’s cheek much like Riku had done to Sora earlier, ending with a hard bite in the crook of Riku’s neck. But unlike Riku, Sora had fangs. Riku let out a gasp as the fangs slid into him, releasing tingles of venom. Yet despite the deepness of the bite, Sora didn’t drink any blood; instead he immediately removed his fangs—beads of blood dribbled out the open wound—and bit Riku’s collarbone, also leaving blood to slowly trickle out across Riku’s skin. Sora progressed down Riku’s chest and abdomen with gentle, tiny bites, each leaving a warm tingling sensation and puffy red marks, though not deep enough to bleed. Sora continued down to Riku’s hip, this time biting down even harder than before. Riku squirmed and made a squeaking sound, upon which Sora paused—fangs remaining firmly latched on—to allow Riku to adjust to the sensation and calm his breathing. The brunette then sucked in sharply to consume the blood—that would surely leave a mark for a while, even after multiple cure spells, to Riku’s delight. Riku moaned as his cock twitched; he wouldn’t be surprised if he came just from the biting. Sora released his fangs, then gently licked the area, though it was so deep that blood still immediately began dribbling out, not that Riku minded. Sora continued his trail of little nips until he reached Riku’s inner thigh, where he again bit down hard.

Riku gasped. “Sora, at this rate… at this rate I might…”

“Shhhh,” Sora said. He finally turned to Riku’s cock, licking the slit, which caused Riku’s cock to twitch with need. Sora slid his tongue along the bottom of the shaft, then tilted his head and lightly pushed his fangs into it. It felt better than Riku ever imagined such would.

“Aah!” Riku gasped. “S-sora!” 

Sora detached his fangs and looked into Riku’s eyes. “Yes, Riku?”

“Please, Sora…”

“Use your words,” Sora teased, mimicking Riku’s taunt from earlier.

“Bite it,” Riku said bluntly, nearly breathless. “Bite it harder.”

Sora raised an eyebrow and chuckled slightly. “Seriously?”

Riku nodded eagerly. “Yes. Please.”

“If you say so…” Sora said, moving languidly as he lowered himself again, placing his fangs slightly below the prior bite, and drove his fangs in mercilessly.

Riku gasped. “Sora!” his cock twitched. The feeling of the vampire venom entering his cock was beyond description. Riku could see stars. His cock burned with electricity, more sensation and pleasure flowing through it than he could process, verging on overstimulation.

Sora removed his fangs, paying no mind to the blood dripping onto Riku’s balls, then moved higher up the silverette’s cock, driving his fangs in the underside again, this time much closer to the tip before quickly engulfing Riku’s cock fully and sucking before the wound could even think about clotting, drinking in the mixture of Riku’s blood and precum.

“Sora. Sora, I’m going to…” Riku panted desperately. He noticed that Sora had moved a hand to his own cock, which was apparently hard again.

Sora began to move his mouth up and down, scraping his fangs along the shaft as he did so. Riku vaguely realized that at some point he’d buried his hands in Sora’s hair. Sora sucked in hard once more, and Riku’s vision went white, his cock pulsating, Sora delightedly sucking and swallowing every ribbon of cum that Riku shot into his mouth.

Once Riku was spent, Sora lifted off him; Riku’s vision returned, and he looked to see a dribble of cum dripping down Sora’s lip. He noticed that Sora must have come at the same time, with his cum pooled just under Riku’s balls. Riku reached down to scoop up some of Sora’s cum, locking eyes with Sora as he licked it off his fingers.

Sora moaned, then leapt onto Riku, kissing him hard before flopping to the side and curling up against Riku, maneuvering so that his head rested on Riku’s shoulder and Riku’s arm wrapped around his waist. “That was amazing,” he said breathlessly. “I love you so much.”

Riku hummed, gently stroking Sora’s hip. “I love you too, Sora… we have got to do that more often…” his thoughts were still slow, lost in the post-orgasm/post-biting haze (but hopefully not blood loss).

“Definitely,” Sora mumbled, then yawned. “Time for sleep?”

“Hmm… we probably should clean up first…”

“Yeah, probably—um. Weren’t these sheets red like two seconds ago?”

Riku looked at the sheets. They were now a deep blue, plain cotton, and perfectly clean. The top sheet lay at the foot of the bed, ready for them to pull it over them, and a pillow sat waiting next to them. “Well, I guess the room took care of that for us,” Riku ventured, slightly baffled.

“I don’t know whether to be creeped out or appressivative,” Sora said honestly.

“Appreciative,” Riku corrected.

“Yeah, that.”

“Well, let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth,” Riku decided.

“What?”

Riku sighed. “It means, let’s not worry about it.” He reached down to pull the sheet over them, and Sora grabbed the pillow, situating that under their heads while sliding his leg over Riku’s.

The room turned off the lights as the two drifted off into a pleasant sleep.

°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°

“Seriously?”

Riku blinked open his eyes. He felt Sora yawn next to him; the brunette felt warm still curled against his side. He turned to the voice… Fuck. Thankfully they were still under the sheet.

“Um… Hi, Leon,” Riku said, sitting up (making sure his lower half was still covered of course). The man stood next to the bed, arms crossed and looking unamused.

“I blame the room,” Sora said sleepily, lifting himself onto his elbows.

Leon raised an eyebrow. “The room.”

“Yeah. It, um, made everything all romantic, and then some strange incense appeared? And, yeah. Um. Sorry.”

Leon glanced over at the stained-glass wall. He sighed as he put a hand to his forehead. “That… that actually makes sense. Stupid house. Just… tell me you at least used protection.”

Sora looked confused. “Protection?”

Riku answered quickly. “We didn’t go that far! Promise! Nor have we ever.”

“Yet,” Sora said, catching on, then actually pouted. “Not for lack of trying,” he muttered, crossing his arms and turning his head to look at Riku with a frown. “I can’t believe you actually resisted my puppy-dog face.”

Riku felt his face redden considerably. “Sora!”

“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that,” Leon said flatly. “Anyway, breakfast is ready, if you want any.”

“Oh, I’m good on food,” Sora said, gesturing casually to the multitude of bites across Riku, the deeper ones still smeared with dried blood. Riku covered his face with both hands, curling into himself. Why, Sora? Why?

Leon was quiet for a beat. “...Right, but Riku does need food. And you might want to heal those bite marks and wash off the blood before coming down, unless you want lots of questions… and maybe make sure Riku’s not going to die of embarrassment too. I’ll see you downstairs.” Leon abruptly turned and navigated around the miscellaneous furniture to leave the room.

Sora nudged Riku. “Hey, it’s not that bad!”

Riku peeked out from his hands to give Sora a withering look.

“No, I’m serious! It could have been Yuffie. Or, Cid. Imagine if it were Cid!”

Riku laughed as he climbed out of the bed. “I have a feeling both of them would just congratulate us or something, but okay, sure, I see your point. Let’s go before one of them actually does come up to check.”

Riku grabbed his overnight bag from the magical pocket of his magical adventuring clothing (which thankfully coincidentally magically stayed clean), finding a new pair of underwear to put on while searching the room for where he’d thrown his the previous night.

“Over here,” Sora said, tossing it at Riku’s head. “Oh! Wait!” Sora, still stark naked, dashed over to Riku. “Curaga.” The smaller bite marks faded, but the larger ones only shrunk (vampire bites generally required more healing magic than most wounds). Riku used his own healing magic to finish healing those—well, most of them. The hip one remained half-healed, which Riku was oddly pleased with.

The couple finished getting changed, stopping at the bathroom to wash off the spots of dried blood on Riku (Sora offered to lick it off, but Riku wasn’t sure if there were risks to drinking old blood so wouldn’t let him), then headed down to the kitchen, where Riku was greeted with the smell of eggs, bacon, sausage, and—

“Chocolate-chip waffles!” Sora cheered, rushing in and grabbing one, immediately sticking it in his mouth.

Riku stared at Sora as he munched on the waffle. “Um. Are you still half asleep?”

Sora blinked at Riku, talking through a bite of the already-half-gone waffle in his mouth. “Uh, no, why…” he swallowed, and then his eyes grew wide as he clutched his stomach. “Fuck.” Sora dropped the waffle and dashed out of the room, no doubt heading to the bathroom.

Leon walked into the room, looking confused. “What’s with Sora?”

Riku laughed nervously and gestured to the fallen waffle on the floor. “He, uh, started to eat a waffle, then remembered that his stomach doesn’t actually like waffles anymore…”

Leon sighed and rolled his eyes. “Why am I not surprised?”

Riku cleaned up the fallen waffle, then plated himself some food and headed down to the ground floor couch to eat. As soon as he sat down, Riku pulled out his GummiPhone, which had started to ring.

“Hey!” Kairi greeted. “I just got back from a quick mission with Lea. Mickey said you’re on a mission, but not where or what.”

“Wait, you went on an overnight mission with Lea?” Riku asked. “Just Lea?” Yen Sid hadn’t allowed the two trainees to go alone on a mission before, preferring them to have supervision as they were so new at using keyblades. He could see the wizard thinking a quick simple day mission would be okay, but overnight?

“Yeah, we went to the Pridelands—we were lions there!—and Simba, who said he knows Sora, introduced us to his daughter—”

“Simba has a daughter?” Sora asked, violently hopping onto the chintz couch next to Riku, clearly feeling better as he didn’t react to the resulting bounce.

“Yes!” Kairi said excitedly. “Her name is Kiara. Anyway, so we beat the few heartless, and then Kiara wanted to play, and then it got late so we spent the night. Yen Sid was pretty mad, though. I don’t think he’s going to let me and Lea go on a mission alone again for a while.”

“He sent you two on a mission alone?” Sora asked in wonder. “Wow, Kairi! That means you’ve made a lot of progress! You’re awesome!”

Kairi beamed. “Thanks, Sora!” She then looked worried. “What happened to your neck?”

“My neck?”

Riku looked over to Sora’s neck. “Umm. You forgot to heal the hickey there.”

Sora writhed at that. “Aww, crap.” He put a hand on his neck and used a cure spell.

Kairi looked confused. “What’s a hickey?”

Sora and Riku shared a look; Riku turned back to the phone with a sigh, slightly uncomfortable, but if they didn’t tell her she’d only ask Lea or someone else, making things more awkward. The two simply had to resign themselves to the fact that they’d forever be getting awkward sex questions from Kairi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was my first time writing an (unclothed) smut scene; hope I did it justice!


	3. Caught

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A certain redhead discovers Sora's affliction.

After two more days of doing nothing but searching the library, eating, and sleeping (and some making out of course; that was a given when Sora fed on Riku. But no repeats of the first night, for fear of a repeat of the next morning, even though no one actually did try to wake them up again), the two had still found nothing useful in a language they could understand. There had been one book with some promising (and gruesome) pictures, but Merlin would need to translate it for them, and that could take a while because it was written in some language the boys had never heard of called r’lyehian, which even the centuries-old wizard barely knew how to read.

So, now they were trying the library in the Radiant Garden castle… which upon entering they came across two people they had not expected to see there at all.

“Sora! Riku!” Kairi yelled, running to the two (she got much faster! Maybe she could beat them in a race now. Well, Riku at least, seeing as Sora had enhanced vampire speed, sometimes) and tackling them into a group hug.

“Hey,” Lea said, walking up to them and waving. “No offense, but I’m gonna forego the hugging.”

Sora pouted in false upset. “Meanie.”

“What in the worlds are you doing here?” Riku asked in wonder.

“I could ask the same of you!” Kairi said, knuckles on her hips. “Four days with you gone, and no one telling us where you are except for a vague ‘on a mission’! And when I called you you didn’t give any details either! I started to think you’d run away again, leaving me behind! And now we find you completely by accident!”

Riku cringed. Yeah, they probably should have told her they were headed somewhere instead of vanishing. “Sorry about that,” Riku apologized.

Sora simply ignored the mini-rant. “So, why are you here?”

Kairi glared at them. “Only if you tell me first.”

“But we asked first!”

“He has a point,” Lea added, also receiving a glare from Kairi.

“Plus, you were banned from missions together, weren't you?” Riku pointed out. “Maybe you were the ones to run away,” he joked.

The joking did nothing to calm Kairi. “Fine,” she said, an edge still to her voice. “No, we didn’t run away—unlike certain boys, we discuss things with people first. I’m doing research on my family. Yen Sid said we could since there’s no heartless here and neither of you were around to escort us on fighting missions.”

“Your family?” Sora asked, slightly confused.

“Yeah; turns out this is my home world,” Kairi said, already much calmer. “I thought I’d felt some nostalgia for it the last time we were here, and the other day Ienzo and them found some old research of Ansem the Wise’s that mentioned me, including a photo. Apparently they were, er, researching me, since they researched darkness in the heart but discovered I had absolutely none. And before you ask, no, I don’t know what the research entailed exactly. Their memories supposedly are vague from that time, especially because Xehanort had been manipulating them at that point, and much of the data was erased when the world fell, supposedly. They’re looking into if they can find more information in their files, but there’s a lot to go through. So we came here to see if there’s any information on my family in the historical records and things.”

“Wait,” Riku said, turning to Lea, remembering something and narrowing his eyes in suspicion. “Weren’t you part of the research team, too? You didn’t recognize Kairi?”

Lea chuckled in embarrassment and rubbed the back of his head. “Nah. Isa and I actually had been sneaking into the castle for kicks, trying to find the rumored ‘secret lab’. Which we did find—just as Xehanort was turning the others into Nobodies. So he took us too. Prior to that, we had only heard rumors of there being secret illegal experiments—which is what Kairi had been part of.”

Riku nodded. It did make sense; Lea and Isa/Saïx were much younger than most the other Nobodies from Radiant Garden.

“So, did you find anything?” Sora asked excitedly.

Kairi sighed. “No, not much, unfortunately. We initially thought maybe I was an actual princess here, since most the Princesses of Light were, but there’s no record of such. Plus, all I can remember of my family here was my grandmother, and being with her in a small house; if I were the Princess, there would probably be more people taking care of me and it most likely would be in the castle. But we’ve only just started researching.”

“Wait, aren’t we forgetting something?” Lea jumped in. “Why are you two here?”

Riku was at a loss as to what to say. “We’re doing research, too,” he admitted, being vague. “We were using Yen Sid's library first, then Merlin’s, and now we’re trying this one.”

“What kind of research requires going to so many places?” Kairi asked in confusion.

“And what’s so obscure that you can’t find information in either wizards’ libraries?” Lea wondered.

Riku turned to Sora for guidance; he wasn’t sure how much Sora wanted to reveal.

Sora hesitated for a moment. “Magical accident,” he finally said. “I messed up a world-disguise spell, and it won’t go away even though Yen Sid and his books said it should naturally. But it didn’t, even when we tried going to worlds that change appearance in hopes that would maybe reset things, so we consulted Merlin, who says it’s permanent so we need to find a way to manually reverse it. Which we haven’t so far.”

“Huh. Well, what did it change?” Lea said. “If you don’t mind me asking.”

Sora bit his lip in thought, then swore. Riku cringed; it was a bad habit Sora had, and not very compatible with fangs. Sora put his hand to his lip, which was bleeding. “I got fangs,” he mumbled through his hand. He used a cure spell and blushed. 

“That’s all?” Lea said. “That’s not too bad. Fangs are kinda cool.”

“Well, yeah,” Sora admitted, “But as you just saw, I keep biting my lip accidentally… so they need to go.”

“And I bet they’re not very fun when kissing Riku, either,” Kairi said shamelessly.

“Kairi!” Sora giggled, blushing. Riku blushed too. In actuality it was the opposite, due to vampire venom having aphroditic effects, but it appeared the only bit Sora wanted to reveal was the fang part, not the full vampire thing. Which Riku was fine with, as it’d be very awkward to have to explain how Sora was obtaining blood.

“Can we see them?” the girl asked, ignoring their reaction.

Sora sighed, then gave the biggest smile he could muster, revealing four pointed canine teeth—two on top and two on the bottom. Unlike some vampires that could retract fangs, these were permanently placed, but small enough to easily hide as long as Sora was careful not to smile too wide.

Lea and Kairi both looked surprised. “They’re on the bottom, too?” the former asked.

Sora shrugged. “Ask Halloween Town about that.”

“That’s where it happened,” Riku explained. Which was probably good; the designs there used costumes, and they weren’t always strictly one creature, so having four fangs wouldn’t be unprecedented. It’d also be difficult for them to realize what species Sora had changed to if they started to suspect it was more than fangs. In actuality, the four fangs were not a matter of the world being quirky; their research had revealed that four fangs were more efficient for blood-drinking, with the lower fangs being the ones that drew blood better and the top being more for holding on. Riku had always assumed vampires only had the top ones, since that’s what the fictional depictions he’d seen liked showing, but the more detailed books they’d found had explained the mechanics of biting and blood-drinking in more depth than Riku had ever wanted to know.

“Damn,” Lea said. “That definitely must make it really difficult to make out, then. I actually feel kinda bad for you.”

Sora and Riku blushed again.

Kairi laughed. “Okay, enough joking.” Her voice returned to a normal tone. “We can help you with the research if you’d like,” she offered.

After about twenty minutes of searching, Sora found something of possible interest; he brought it to Riku’s attention first. It was called the “Book of Eibon”. Riku pawed through it with Sora; yes, this definitely seemed promising, albeit the book itself was very disorganized, written in a mix of languages by different people. A cursory glance revealed some were autobiographical entries, but others were records of strange experiments, spells, descriptions of beasts neither wanted to ever encounter, sacrificial rituals, and a myriad of other mysterious, bizarre, creepy, and odd topics, all which seemed to be very obscure and arcane. Riku snuck it into his pocket (magical pockets were wonderful things) to look at with Sora later; it seemed too suspicious a thing to show the other two.

“I think I found something!” Kairi called next, waving around a book. She sat at a table and the others crowded around. “Mechanics of Magical Teeth-alteration.”

“That definitely sounds promising,” Lea commented. “Even if you can’t reverse the spell you could alter them to not be fangs.”

Riku had to admit, if they wanted to only change the fangs that would be a good idea. Unfortunately, it was more than just the fangs that was the issue—actually removing the fangs would only make things worse technically, as they’d need to find a different way to open the skin to get the blood, which would be less sanitary (the vampire venom also acted as an antiseptic) and more painful (no pleasant sensation from the venom).

“Oh, we already tried that,” Sora expertly lied. “That same book was in Merlin’s library. Apparently magical alterations can't be re-altered with different magic or something, because they interact oddly. Like, I could instead end up with larger fangs, or an entire mouth of them.” This of course was probably entirely untrue.

Lea snorted. “Sexy.”

“So you’re not even going to try?” Kairi asked, ignoring Lea. “There’s still a chance it could work.”

Riku shrugged. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to go through the book just in case. Let’s find some more books potentially relevant and go through them all at once.”

After a while, Lea, Sora, and Riku settled at a table with a pile of books on body alteration magic, whereas Kairi had another pile of old birth records for her own research. Many of the relevant books in the library were ones they’d already found at Yen Sid or Merlin’s, but a few were new as well.

Barely after an hour had passed, Riku felt a pair of eyes on him. He looked up, nearly catching Sora’s eye before the brunette ducked away to pretend to be reading. Riku ignored it; Sora had probably gotten bored. It happened twice more before Riku’s Gummiphone buzzed. Riku glanced at Sora before pulling the phone out to check the message; no doubt it was Sora. This was confirmed as Riku looked at the message.

Recipient: [Riku] ; Sender: [Sora]  
[Hey. I’m bored.]

Riku rolled his eyes, sending back [Really? I’d have never guessed.]

Sora subtly kicked Riku under the table and sent [I’m also hungry].

Riku frowned. [You just ate this morning].

Sora: [Yeah but I’m hungry again.]  
Riku: [No, you’re just bored and horny.]  
Sora: [Riku!]  
Sora: [That’s not true.]  
Riku: [Don’t believe you.]  
Sora: [Okay maybe that is true.]  
Sora: [But I really am still hungry too].

Lea coughed. “Stop flirting via text and get a room,” he said, and Riku and Sora both flushed in embarrassment while Kairi giggled.

“It actually is getting a bit late,” Kairi said, checking her own GummiPhone. “We should go get dinner.”

“Where are you staying?” Riku asked curiously.

“Merlin’s, of course,” Kairi said, grinning. Riku and Sora expressed excitement about that, but glanced briefly at each other confirming their worry. They’d need to be extra careful about Sora acting like a human.

They gathered the books and records into a neat little pile on the table so they could continue their work the next day; they didn’t have to worry about anyone cleaning them up as no one was actually in charge of the library at the moment.

On the way out, Sora grabbed Riku’s wrist. “We’ll meet you there,” he told Kairi and Lea, pulling Riku away. “Gotta, um, go to the bathroom.”

Kairi and Lea snickered. “Right, bathroom,” the latter said with a teasing skepticism.

“Have fun, boys,” Kairi said, heading towards the way out, causing the two to blush. Kairi and Lea made a mean double-team; why had they ever let them become friends?

Sora dragged Riku down a corridor and around a corner, bypassing the actual bathroom to head into an abandoned room. He immediately pushed Riku against the wall and crashed their lips together with a small moan. Riku’s arms automatically wrapped themselves around Sora’s waist and he let out a little moan to match.

Finally Sora pulled away. He looked Riku in the eyes, out of breath. “Wow,” Riku breathed, impressed and aroused at both the kiss and the deepness of Sora’s eyes.

“Yeah,” Sora said, just as breathlessly. His eyes had dilated until the pupils nearly overtook the irises. He pressed up against Riku; Riku realized Sora was already half-hard, and Riku noticed with a flip of his stomach that so was he.

“Should we really be doing this here?” Riku whispered, looking around.

“It’s an empty room; we’re fine,” Sora said. “Besides, I wasn’t lying that I’m hungry. Probably should have dinner now so people don’t get suspicious…”

“Makes sense,” Riku agreed, though he wasn’t sure if it were more his brain or his cock talking. 

Sora kissed Riku on the lips again, then trailed tiny kisses down his cheek and neck until his mouth rested right where the neck and shoulder met. Riku gasped as Sora bit down hard, nearly melting against Riku as he eagerly sucked in the blood. Riku started to moan slightly, but then Sora put a hand over Riku’s mouth—a reminder that this was a place they needed to keep quiet in. Riku closed his eyes as Sora’s venom sent pleasant tingles fractilating from where the fangs met the skin as Sora drank…

“Knew it wasn’t just aesthetic.”

Riku’s eyes burst open as Sora swerved around, slashing deep gashes across Riku’s skin as he hadn’t remembered to dislodge his fangs before turning. Riku gasped and put his hand over the wound. Lea stood there staring at them with his hands on his hips, a grin, and a raised eyebrow as both Riku and Sora’s faces turned the color of raspberries. Riku noticed Sora lick his lips, no doubt trying to remove the blood gathered on them, to little avail as some had dribbled down his chin.

“Might want to take care of that,” Lea said, gesturing to Riku’s bloody neck; the wound was bleeding pretty severely. 

“Right,” Riku said, still processing things. He used a cure spell; it didn’t fully heal the wound, but at least it stopped the bleeding. “I’m, er, just gonna go wash this off,” he said, heading out of the room to the bathroom next to it, Sora and Lea following.

Lea stayed quiet, leaning up against the wall with his arms crossed, evidently waiting until Riku and Sora were finished cleaning up to say or do anything. Riku cringed as he saw just how much blood had been spilt and the scabbed-over gashes, registering that if they hadn’t had magic then stitches would surely be required. Riku used another cure spell, and Sora added his too, causing the wound to become little more than scratches that should heal naturally. Riku was extremely thankful that his clothes were dark enough to hide the remaining blood stains after he rubbed them out the best he could with wet paper towels.

“Who else knows?” Lea asked when Riku and Sora were done.

Sora sighed. “Not that many. We only intentionally told Yen Sid, Merlin, and Mickey. Leon knows too since he accidentally overheard us talking to Merlin—in retrospect discussing it in the middle of the ground floor room wasn’t the smartest idea.”

“That’s all, huh?”

Sora shifted. “Well, no. Some sage monkey in the Pride Lands magically knew, and some people in Olympus know too—the gods because they’re gods, and Hercules and his girlfriend because there was an emergency that caused me to lose too much blood and Riku wasn’t there so I had to drink hers. Potions and cure spells don’t help with blood loss for… for vampires.”

“So you actually are a legit vampire, huh?”

Sora nodded. “Yeah. Kinda. I have some traits but not all, thankfully. Like, sunlight’s fine and I still sleep and stuff; there’s actually probably more positives than negatives, come to think of it. The enhanced senses, like night-vision, are nice, and so is the occasional superspeed. The only major issue is needing blood and being unable to eat regular food…”

Lea tilted his head. He seemed more curious than anything. “So, what, does it taste like ash or something?”

Sora scowled at that and crossed his arms. “No! All it does is make me really nauseous. I wish it did taste like ash, because I keep accidentally eating stuff because it still smells delicious and tastes good, at least when it goes down. Except garlic and similar stuff; the smell is just too strong.”

Lea raised his eyebrows. “So that’s really true, then? The garlic-warding-off-vampires thing?”

Sora shrugged. “Kinda? It isn’t like poison; It just smells really bad and makes me kinda nervous because I can’t smell properly with it around. I wouldn’t count on it for protection; it’d help block your scent, but they could still see and hear you. If a vampire was especially intent on having your blood, garlic wouldn’t magically push it away.”

Lea nodded. “So it’d make you smelly without being much help. Got it.”

Riku saw an opening to ask a question he’d been wanting to ask the whole conversation. “How did you figure it out?” he asked Lea. “That it was more than aesthetic,” he clarified. “Also…” Riku shifted nervously. “Does Kairi know too?”

Lea shook his head. “No, I think she still believes your ruse. I’ve just done a lot more traveling, seen a lot more. There’s no way something that was merely an aesthetic result of a world-order spell could be that difficult to remove or have that little information on it. Besides, if you’re anything like Roxas—or most boys your age—you’d be delighted to have something as cool as fangs, not searching the worlds for how to remove them because of a slight annoyance you could adjust too. Plus, you’ve been avoiding eating at the Tower around people. You either say you’re not hungry or take it to your room, which is the opposite of how you used to be. Even Kairi has noticed that part. Oh, and the nail in the coffin: Sora, you were practically drooling as you looked at Riku’s neck earlier.” The last sentence had a teasing note to it.

Sora blushed, seemingly unsure how to answer. Riku was impressed; for some reason, he hadn’t thought Lea capable of such deductive reasoning, most likely due to his constant joking and dismissive demeanor—a perfect example of the idiom “can’t judge a book by its cover”.

Lea then looked at Sora curiously. “So was it really a world-disguise spell that changed you?” Sora nodded, and Lea continued, “Wow. I have never heard of something that intense lingering. And you said it’s permanent?”

“That’s what Merlin claims,” Sora confirmed. “He also said—and our research so far has backed it up—that all people recorded to have changed inner anatomy permanently have done so intentionally, so no one ever worked out a way to change back. That’s why we’ve needed to go to so many libraries… ugh, I can’t believe I messed it up so horribly!”

“Well, on the plus side, Merlin says it means you must have really exceptional magic,” Riku said, in an effort to make Sora feel better.

Sora scrunched up his nose. “That’s not what Donald and Yen Sid seem to think.”

Lea scoffed. “Fuck them, then. I’d take Merlin’s opinion on it over theirs any day—did you know he’s centuries old? Centuries! I heard a rumor that he was even Yen Sid’s teacher.”

“Really?” Sora asked skeptically. “He seems so… whimsical. I always thought Yen Sid was the more experienced one.”

Lea chuckled. “Oh, don’t let Merlin’s appearance fool you—he’s considered the best wizard in existence. But, going back to Kairi: Like I said, she has started to notice things. Now, obviously a vampire isn’t going to be the first conclusion she jumps to, since you don’t have all the traits, but eventually she’s going to either walk in on you or figure it out. Right now she’s just been worried that maybe you’re feeling sick, since you’re not eating around us, but she’s around you enough that she’ll soon start suspecting it’s more, and you know firsthand how determined she gets about finding things out when she thinks you’re keeping secrets.”

Sora and Riku both cringed at that, remembering how Kairi discovered the two were a couple. Sora sighed. “Yeah, I know. It’s difficult though; how do you come out as a vampire to your best friend?”

Lea tilted his head. “Well, how did you tell Riku?”

Sora’s face turned the color of a ruby. “Th-that’s… uh, not a way I’d like to tell Kairi about it, haha.” Riku blushed too; yeah, Kairi would not be partial to learning about Sora’s vampirism via him practically leaping on her because he was starving, and then drinking her blood while making out… well. Actually she might not mind that last bit. But still.

Lea chuckled slightly. “Okay, something tells me I don’t want to know that story. Anyway, figure out a way to tell her, okay? Don’t let her figure it out when you accidentally forget to heal a bloody bite mark or something.”

°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°

Two mornings later, once Lea and Kairi had left once again for the castle library and Riku and Sora were getting ready to see Ienzo as they’d still found no answers, Merlin approached the two boys with news that he had translated the spell they’d found in the book written in r’lyehian.

“Well? What’s the verdict?” Sora asked Merlin anxiously. “What’s the translated book say?”

Merlin smiled at Sora sadly. “Well, there is one spell in it that can reverse vampirism itself, the first one I’ve ever known to exist, but—”

“Really? How?! Can we do it now?”

Merlin sighed and shook his head. “No. For the first step, you need the blood of whichever vampire turned you, which obviously is impossible to get.”

Sora frowned. “Oh. Umm… do you think my blood would work for that? Since I did technically turn myself…” 

“It’s worth a try, right?” Riku added. Although he knew it was grasping at straws, Riku also hoped that could work (at least, that’s what Riku told himself; a part of him didn’t want Sora to change back, as he liked being bitten so much… wait, no! Riku tore his mind away from that line of thought. Sora had to change back, Riku’s kinks aside).

“Unfortunately, no,” Merlin said in a consolidatory voice. “The other requirement is to have not yet tasted human blood, which you most certainly have.”

Sora half-sighed, half-pathetically-whined. “Why even tell us if it’s hopeless?”

“We found another book that might be useful,” Riku chimed in, removing the Book of Eibon from his pocket. “It was in the castle’s library.”

Merlin’s eyes grew wide and he grabbed the book from Riku, uncharacteristically showing deep panic and worry. “No, no, this definitely won’t have anything,” Merlin told them.

Riku raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. “Really? That reaction is just a little suspicious, you know.”

Merlin returned to his happy-go-lucky demeanor. “Oh, no worries! I promise, it truly would not have what you seek. It must, however, be locked up; you didn’t actually read any of it, did you?”

Riku shook his head, and Sora looked confused. “We briefly scanned it, but didn’t read it in depth. We were going to yesterday when alone but forgot,” Riku explained. “Kairi and Lea were at the library, and it looked suspicious.”

Merlin let out a sigh. “Well, it’s certainly good you didn’t! This is a book of Darkness, no doubt left by Maleficent, and must be locked up; some of the content has been known to cause madness!”

Sora frowned and crossed his arms. “Huh. Whatever happened to Maleficent, anyway?”

Riku shrugged. “I’m sure she’ll pop up sooner or later. Come on, let’s head to Ienzo’s lab.”


	4. Answers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ienzo examines Sora's heart, upon which a few discoveries are made. Then, they must speak with Yen Sid...

“That’s impossible,” Sora said, staring at Ienzo with wide eyes. He was laying on an examination table at Ienzo’s lab, with his shirt off and wires stuck to him that connected to heart-analysis machines. Riku stood next to him.

“I’m afraid it is true,” Ienzo said. “Your heart has been coded to be a vampire. Even putting it in a replica body wouldn’t change such.”

“But how?” Sora said, sitting up, being mindful of the wires. “Can magic really change the heart like that?”

“Hmmm.” Ienzo looked at the data again. “When did you say you turned?”

“Uh. Nearly a month ago.”

“Curious. I cannot pinpoint an exact time, but the data shows your heart’s disposition definitely changed a few weeks after that. Perhaps that was when you became comfortable with your body and fully accepted your status as a vampire? Once your mind accepted it, your heart did too. That’s my best guess.”

Sora looked shaken at that news. “Accepted it? But I didn’t accept it! I don’t want to be a vampire! Why would I accept that? Why would my heart accept it? Can’t my heart un-accept it!?”

Ienzo shook his head. “It’s not that simple. If your body were changed back to human it might, but as long as your body remains a vampire’s, your heart will be too. We could try moving it into a different body, but as replica bodies change to mimic the heart, the only way to do that would be to exchange hearts with someone who has a true body, which would make them a vampire, or simply sacrifice their heart to take their body, which I’m sure neither of which you wish to do.”

Sora sighed, looking down. “No, I don’t want to do that, you’re right.”

Riku put a hand on his boyfriend’s shoulder, and Sora put his hand up to cover it. Riku didn’t say anything to Sora, knowing that just this comfort would be enough. He asked Ienzo, “You’re sure that’s the only way?”

Ienzo nodded. “Unfortunately, yes. I can look into it further, but the prospects are extremely low. I would not get my hopes up.”

Sora nodded. “I understand… But if you do, please don’t make it a priority; I don’t want it getting in the way of other research when it’s so unlikely.” Riku was surprised at this; he hadn’t expected Sora to calm down so quickly, nor to be so accepting that there wasn’t a way to change things—because that’s effectively what they’d been told, that this was irreversible. None of their research had yielded a thing; this had been their last resort. Despite Ienzo’s words, everyone in the room understood the implication that the prospects of finding an answer were so minuscule that they might as well be nonexistent; Ienzo just had more tact than to say such so bluntly.

Ienzo smiled. “I’m glad you understand… Oh! While you’re here, I do have other news,” Ienzo said, sounding excited. “Sora, the data that Ansem left inside you—”

“The WHAT?” Sora asked, confused, any calmness lost.

“Oh, right, you wouldn’t know about that,” Riku said in realization. “When I entered your heart to wake you after the exam, I found some data that Ansem left in you while your memories were being restored by Namine…” he turned to Ienzo and narrowed his eyes. “Didn’t you say it would only take a few days to analyze?”

Ienzo uncharacteristically blushed slightly and nervously explained, “It should have been, but there was an, erm, incident with the lab equipment and…” he took a deep breath, restoring his usually calm demeanor. “Well, we only just finished analyzing it yesterday. We started to write up a full report today, but as you’re here already, we can tell you now and then give you the formal report later.”

Riku nodded. “We’re listening,” he said, knocking Sora with his shoulder to snap him out of his always-wandering thoughts—he’d zoned out right after Riku mentioned Namine.

“Well, it seems that there are three hearts other than your own that have taken refuge inside you, Sora.”

Sora and Riku took some time to process that. Three? Riku thought about that. Were those the people he had seen in Sora’s dream? One was Roxas. Another looked like Roxas, and the third was a black-haired girl.

“Three?” Sora croaked out. “Who?”

“One is Roxas,” Riku pointed out. “Didn’t you say the other day you’d like to find a way to get him out?”

“Yeah, I know that,” Sora said, rolling his eyes. “But two others? Who?”

Ienzo shook his head. “That, I do not know. We can try analyzing the data more to see if we find clues, but we do know that of the other two, one has been in your heart since you were a young child, and the other originated around the same time Roxas did. However, the data related to the latter is corrupted, as though something tried to erase it. We’ll work on that first. Is this okay with you?”

Sora nodded absentmindedly, so Riku gave a more solid answer. “Yeah, sounds good.”

“Well, we’ll find out who they are once we get them out,” Sora said decisively. “Er. Now we just need to figure out how.”

Riku realized something. “Wait. Ienzo, earlier you mentioned replicas. Could the hearts be moved to those?”

“Replicas?” Sora asked. “You said that before…”

Riku nodded. “The Organization was working on them while you were at Castle Oblivion. They made a modified copy of me using them, one that was darker and more angsty that they could use as a pawn. I defeated him though,” Riku assured Sora, who had started to look worried. He turned to Ienzo. “Can you do that? Make replicas?”

Ienzo frowned. “Possibly. We have some of Even’s old notes on them, but although Even was recompleted here he disappeared soon after with his more recent research on such. We suspect he went back to the Organization; all he cares about is his research, so if Xehanort gives him adequate resources for such, he wouldn’t hesitate to work with him.”

“We do know Xehanort is using replicas,” Riku pointed out, “So that makes the most sense…”

“So can you do it without him or not?” Sora asked, sounding a little desperate.

Ienzo smiled gently. “Don’t worry, Sora. We’ll create replicas for Roxas and the others; it may take us some time, but I assure you, we’ll get there.”

°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°

Sora was practically skipping as he and Riku headed back to Merlin’s. Riku was surprised, given the info they’d received about the vampirism. “What’s got you so excited?” Riku asked in a teasing voice.

Sora jumped in front of Riku and stopped, grinning. “We’re gonna get Roxas out!”

Riku smiled. “Yup. But remember, it’ll take a while.” And Roxas would probably try to kill Riku once he was freed, but Sora didn’t actually know that yet.

“I know! But we know it’ll be possible!”

Riku nodded. “Right.” Then he shifted slightly, considering. Yeah, they probably should talk about it. “But… about the other thing…”

Sora sighed. “Well, I’m obviously not happy about it, but it is what it is. Honestly, ever since Merlin told us it was permanent—no, even before that—I started to suspect that it wouldn’t be solvable. Maybe that’s why my heart accepted it.”

“Makes sense,” Riku acknowledged. “We can still keep our eye out though; who knows, maybe in the future there’ll be a solution.” Admittedly the chances of that were microscopic, and Sora probably knew that too, but a tiny sliver of hope was better than nothing, right?

Sora smiled. “Yeah!”

“We also probably should tell Kairi, at the very least. And Donald and Goofy too, especially if you’re going to be travelling with them.”

Sora cringed and wilted slightly. “Yeah. Not yet though?”

“Sora…”

“I’ll tell them soon! But I’m just not ready yet.”

Riku sighed. “Okay, fine,” he decided. “But don’t wait until they find out on their own, okay?” Riku had a feeling he’d have to press Sora about this quite a bit.

Sora grinned broadly. “Okay!” Then, his face suddenly fell. “Aww, man. Yen Sid is not going to be happy about this at all.”

Riku cringed at the reminder. “Yeah… plus we ran away without telling him… want me to call Mickey to act as a buffer?”

“Yeah, that might be a good idea.”

°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°µ°

Yen Sid looked extremely stern as Riku and Sora entered the office, Mickey following. “Would you two care to explain where you ran off to for nearly a week? It certainly was not on some mysterious ‘mission’, as you told Kairi.”

“Oh!” Mickey exclaimed, suddenly looking nervous. “Did I not get back to you on that? They were in Radiant Garden doing research!”

Yen Sid glared at Mickey, who seemed to shrivel at the wizard’s clear anger. “No, you in fact did not,” he said tersely.

Riku felt himself pale. Well, fuck. So much for Mickey being there to act as a buffer. He’d never seen such an angry expression on the usually-stoic wizard.

Yen Sid composed himself, though his voice remained thick with tension. “We will talk later, Mickey. Riku, Sora, next time I would like you to discuss things with me directly before you go off on unsanctioned trips. You have training and actual missions to attend to. I do not appreciate you disappearing unannounced. This is the second time this has happened; I hope it does not become a pattern.”

“It won’t, Master,” Riku promised.

Yen Sid nodded. “Good.” He frowned in thought. “As punishment, you will both have dish duty this week—and do not try to use magic again, Sora!” he warned. 

Sora cringed at that. “Yes, sir.” Last time they’d been given dish duty, Sora had tried to enchant them to wash themselves, which had ended badly and changed his and Riku’s punishment to scrubbing floors.

Yen Sid nodded. “Now, considering you did at least tell Mickey this time—albeit after leaving—I will not reprimand you further. It is not your fault he failed to notify me where you had gone,” Yen Sid decided. Riku hid his surprise, although he feared a little for Mickey as the wizard’s ire seemed to have focused on the mouse. Yen Sid continued, “However, again, I do expect you to discuss it with me next time you desire to interrupt your training and mission schedules. Understood?” He seemed to be speaking more to Riku than Sora.

“Yes, sir,” Riku said.

Yen Sid nodded and said, “Now, you were doing research there, as I understand it? I assume it is related to Sora’s condition.”

“Yes, sir,” Riku answered again, noticing with annoyance how Yen Sid had again directed the question to only him rather than Sora, as was often the case, even though it pertained to both of them. Although that might be good at the moment, as Sora appeared to have his thoughts elsewhere again.

“Have you learnt anything useful?”

Riku explained, “Well, in short, Merlin and Ienzo both claim it’s definitely permanent, and there seems to be no magical or scientific solution to fixing it. None of the libraries turned up anything.”

Yen Sid nodded and said, “I see. That is an unfortunate inconvenience.” Riku tried not to make his flash of anger obvious; would having a note of sympathy kill the wizard? But no, all he immediately thought is how it’s an inconvenience, not how Sora might feel. Yen Sid continued, “However, you two seem to be managing it well. Please continue to do so. Now, if you excuse me, I must discuss some things with Mickey. You two are dismissed.”

“Thank you, Master,” Riku said, and turned to leave. He mouthed “Good luck” to Mickey, who smiled nervously at Riku.

Sora seemed to be looking out the window, distracted by something or another. Riku tugged gently on his sleeve. Sora gave a slight start, then blushed sheepishly and followed Riku out.

“What’s on your mind?” Riku asked curiously, gently taking Sora’s hand in his as they walked.

“Hmm? Oh. I’m hungry,” Sora said simply. Riku wasn’t quite sure that was it, but he let it go. Sora could have secrets if he wanted. Unlike Kairi, Riku tried not to pry too much.

Riku scoffed. “Seriously? Again? You’re eating a lot more than you used to,” he pointed out, wondering if they should be concerned.

Sora shook his head. “Not really. I didn’t have that much earlier. Thought I’d spread it out.”

“What do you mean?” Riku asked.

“Well, I mean, initially I was just having it only when necessary, since I felt bad… but now I don’t mind it so much, and you like it, so why not do it more often, right? It’s like, a human can be fine eating one big meal every day or two, but it’s nicer to eat smaller amounts more frequently.”

Riku nodded. “Sure, makes sense.”

Sora looked at Riku coyly. “So does that mean I can have your blood now…?”

Riku chuckled. “Sora, you can have it whenever you want, you know that.”

Sora grinned, showing fangs. “Great! Let’s go, then!”

As Sora led Riku by the hand to their room, Riku couldn’t help but think about how casually—and excitedly—Sora had talked about drinking blood. He also now had a tendency to say ‘humans’ as though he weren’t one—which technically he wasn’t, but initially he’d refused to think that way. He also didn’t seem nearly as put-out about discovering that the vampirism was incurable and permanent as expected; initially Sora had been disappointed, but Riku had expected that to linger. Sora had been a basketcase about it for days when he had first changed, even though at the time they thought it temporary. Yet now he was perfectly calm. Was Sora hiding his emotions? No, Riku concluded, as Sora eagerly pulled him into their shared room. 

Sora truly had accepted being a vampire.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed!
> 
> I have two more entries to this series in the works, and there will be many more—lots of people still need to learn about the vampirism after all. It'll end up covering all of KH3 by the end, because how awesome would it be to have Sora fighting as a vampire in the final battle?
> 
> Next entry will be from Sora's POV and features him and Riku returning to Olympus to answer a new question: if Sora's indeed a vampire, does that mean he's immortal?
> 
> Following entry will include Kairi's POV again, as she and Sora return from a mission to San Fransokyo with little memory of the events that occurred there.


End file.
